Seafurn's Old School Pico Gets An Upgrade - 365 Day Challenge

[SeaFurn]

I was already planning to move my 2.5 gallon Old School Pico contest tank to a little larger tank and keep it running - AND it seems I can't stay away from these contests - especially when there's over 60 people joining -  so why not??  This will be contest #3 for me . I doubt it will be a charm like they say, but it should be fun, and hopefully not as frustrating as it's been lately.  

 

Going into this, my goal is to get the rocks and coral recovered.  The tank's been in a world of hurt for the last several months as I've battled several things and lost some coral. 

Click on the link in my signature if you're at all interested in what's been going on with the tank.  I appreciate everyone who has been trying to help me through it all. 

Here's an FTS from this past Thursday just so you can see the starting point - thankfully just lots of brown and red algae now and a couple of corals on the decline...but this WAY better than it's been.

 

 

 

It doesn't seem quite legit to just move everything into a different tank for this contest, so I may change up the scape a bit now that I won't have the big HOB filter hanging down taking up a lot of prime real estate within the display itself.  And the coral will be getting a huge lighting upgrade from the 12w ABi Tuna Blue par 38 bulb - to either a Nanbox Mini Tide Plus M (starting with this) or an Ai Prime.  And then there's the Lifegard 4.1 gallon AIO tank, which I got for Christmas from my wife a couple of years ago that got put into the closet when the Old School Pico contest was announced.  I'm very happy finally be able to get to use it.  So I guess it will be a little different afterall - and I know I'll make changes over the course of a year and add a bunch more coral - once the tank is stable and I've got the nutrient levels stable. 

 

 

 

 

Tank - Lifegard 4.1 gallon

Return Pump - MJ606 

Heater - 25W Aqua Thermo 

Temp Controller - Finnex Max-300

Lighting - Nanobox Mini Tide Plus M (from @second_decimal)

Flow Pump - TBD and if space allows

ATO - XPAqua Duetto

Filter Floss Holder - InTank (Waterbox Cube 7 version)

Substrate -  Bare bottom - white ABS siliconed to the bottom glass

Aquascape - Aquamaxx rubble rock - a couple of pieces glued together to make the largest one

Lid - TBD

Livestock - 

  Shark nose goby from Algae Barn

  Ricordia  (Got Corals)

  Zoas  (Got Corals)

  Sexy Peach Galaxy palys (from @Weetabix7 orginally in reefbowl)

  Bubblegum digitata  (Got Corals)

  Green Psammocora  (Got Corals)  - not looking so good

  Frogspawn  (Got Corals)

  Hammer  (Got Corals)  - not looking so good

  Acan (originally in reefbowl) - not looking so good

  GSP  (from @Weetabix7  originally in 100 Days of Nano's tank)

  Dwarf ceriths  (Reef Cleaners)

  Florida ceriths  (Reef Cleaners)

  Trochus snail (Reef Cleaners)

  Blue legged hermits (Reef Cleaners)

 

As this is a 365 day challenge, I’m going to try to live up to that spirit by posting something here every day. It may be an observation of something in or about my tank, a question I need an answer to or advice on, water test results, a remark of frustration (I will try to keep these to a minimum), something I’ve learned or read about reef related, or anything else reef related. Hopefully that will add to the richness of the thread. 

[SeaFurn]

Hold

[Chadicus Meridius]

Good luck. 

[This guy is extra salty]

I was waiting for you to join lol

im also upgrading the pico tank too!

[debbeach13]

Yes bring all that not looking so good stuff back to life! Good luck

[SeaFurn]

2 hours ago, This guy is extra salty said:

I was waiting for you to join lol

im also upgrading the pico tank too!

The waiting’s over!

A DIY Pico?

[SeaFurn]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Yes bring all that not looking so good stuff back to life! Good luck

I figured by joining I’d at least keep my focus on it rather than just throwing in the towel. 

Hopefully I’ve turned the corner but I’m sure changing it all up will cause a set back of some kind. 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

You know I'm super biased towards the lifegard 4.1🔥👊😅 looking forward to this. Best of luck with setting everything up! 👍

[seabass]

I'm expecting good things.

[SeaFurn]

18 minutes ago, The Rainy Day Aquarium said:

You know I'm super biased towards the lifegard 4.1🔥👊😅 looking forward to this. Best of luck with setting everything up! 👍

Thanks! Glad you’re a fan! 

It’s a nice little tank for sure. 

Luckily, I can take my time getting everything transferred over. I do want to change it up some though so need to put some thought into that. 

[second_decimal]

about the algae... i had an algae problem and probably will again, but i started dosing RS (1ml of each per day) coral nutrition and the algae cleared up right away. 

[debbeach13]

From hospital tank to thriving mini reef! Sounds like a contender to me. I miss Wheatie.

[SeaFurn]

41 minutes ago, seabass said:

I'm expecting good things.

Thanks! If anything the rocks will have 2 years of maturity on them at the end this so that should help - I hope. And through the last contest I learned my lesson keeping nutrients too low - nothing thrived and bad algae took hold. Won’t let that happen again. 

I need to figure out how to keep everything stable - and right now I only feel confident with that in salinity and temp. Getting better with nitrates and alk. Phosphates are still a mystery. It will help when I get better test kit. 

I’m hoping a little more water volume will help, but with the total still being under 5 gal, I’m probably dreaming. 

 

[SeaFurn]

25 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

From hospital tank to thriving mini reef! 

Let’s hope! 

 

29 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

 I miss Wheatie.

Me too! I keep thinking one day she’ll pop in here with some new random experiment to try like she never even left. 

[SeaFurn]

As this is a 365 day challenge, I’m going to try to live up to that spirit by posting something here every day. It may be an observation of something in or about my tank, a question I need an answer to or advice on, water test results, a remark of frustration (I will try to keep these to a minimum), something I’ve learned or read about reef related, or anything else reef

related. Hopefully that will add to the richness of the thread. 

 

 

[Gravity]

How are you liking the InTank waterbox 7 floss holder? Does it fit well?

[RedTheReefer]

I was waiting for your contest post. 🙂

 

I will be following your progress for sure!

[debbeach13]

8 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

a remark of frustration (I will try to keep these to a minimum),

Please do not limit remarks of frustration if they are about the chambers or stability or coral health. IMO that is the information that will be the most informative about AIO tanks.

[SeaFurn]

16 hours ago, Gravity said:

How are you liking the InTank waterbox 7 floss holder? Does it fit well?

Fits perfect. I think it’s going to work out great. I was just going to make one out of egg crate but I’m being lazy and I always like to throw a little business @inTank ‘s way. (StevieT - I think you could go ahead and market this for the the Waterbox Cube 7 and the Lifegard 4.1.  There’s a little gap there but it’s not going to make much of a difference

once the floss is in.)

 

 

[SeaFurn]

9 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Please do not limit remarks of frustration if they are about the chambers or stability or coral health. IMO that is the information that will be the most informative about AIO tanks.

I’ll definitely talk about the challenges and frustrations...just don’t want to come across as always complaining. 

[debbeach13]

I didn't think of that. Some times it is hard making a point without someone taking it wrong. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 2 - 

Today was a busy day for me so I didn't do as much with the new tank as I had hoped. I'm still waiting on the silicone holding down the ABS to dry.  
I spent a little time thinking about what I need to do to preapre for this tank move.  I'd be happy to hear any tips people have based on some of the things below. 

Keep in mind - 

• I want to change the scape up some. At a minimum I'm thinking of gluing two of the separate rocks together. I'm not sure about actually moving any of the corals around but maybe.  Will there be any problems adding new additional rock if I do that?
• I'm going to be changing lights - from a par 38 bulb to a Nanbox Mine TIde.  Should I use the par 38 buld with new tank for awhile and then transition to the new light or should I put the Mini Tide on the Old School tank right now and start acclimating them to it so they are used to it when they move to the new tank?
• I've stated I want to go bare bottom on this tank but is there any benefit to having sand?  I know I've read about it helping to buffer PH...but I'm not sure that's a problem in my current tank.
• Should I move everything  all at once or do it slowly over the course of a week or two?

 

[ECLS Reefer]

1 hour ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 2 - 

Today was a busy day for me so I didn't do as much with the new tank as I had hoped. I'm still waiting on the silicone holding down the ABS to dry.  
I spent a little time thinking about what I need to do to preapre for this tank move.  I'd be happy to hear any tips people have based on some of the things below. 

Keep in mind - 

• I want to change the scape up some. At a minimum I'm thinking of gluing two of the separate rocks together. I'm not sure about actually moving any of the corals around but maybe.  Will there be any problems adding new additional rock if I do that?
• I'm going to be changing lights - from a par 38 bulb to a Nanbox Mine TIde.  Should I use the par 38 buld with new tank for awhile and then transition to the new light or should I put the Mini Tide on the Old School tank right now and start acclimating them to it so they are used to it when they move to the new tank?
• I've stated I want to go bare bottom on this tank but is there any benefit to having sand?  I know I've read about it helping to buffer PH...but I'm not sure that's a problem in my current tank.
• Should I move everything  all at once or do it slowly over the course of a week or two?

 

I tried doing the bare bottom thing but I couldn’t stand the look of the detritus all over the bottom which swirls with the current. And the CUC wasn’t miraculously vacuuming it up, so I ditched that idea within the first week. So much better with sand, plus your bio filter lives there! Seems a win win. The sand bed is super thin in my new tank, so maybe it won’t hold onto bad nutrients.

[This guy is extra salty]

On 2/29/2020 at 10:08 PM, SeaFurn said:

As this is a 365 day challenge, I’m going to try to live up to that spirit by posting something here every day. It may be an observation of something in or about my tank, a question I need an answer to or advice on, water test results, a remark of frustration (I will try to keep these to a minimum), something I’ve learned or read about reef related, or anything else reef

related. Hopefully that will add to the richness of the thread. 

 

 

Good luck with the posting every day 

Im lucky if I Find time to do a weekly post.

serious dedication 😂 

[debbeach13]

9 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

• I want to change the scape up some. At a minimum I'm thinking of gluing two of the separate rocks together. I'm not sure about actually moving any of the corals around but maybe.  Will there be any problems adding new additional rock if I do that?
• I'm going to be changing lights - from a par 38 bulb to a Nanbox Mine TIde.  Should I use the par 38 buld with new tank for awhile and then transition to the new light or should I put the Mini Tide on the Old School tank right now and start acclimating them to it so they are used to it when they move to the new tank?
• I've stated I want to go bare bottom on this tank but is there any benefit to having sand?  I know I've read about it helping to buffer PH...but I'm not sure that's a problem in my current tank.
• Should I move everything  all at once or do it slowly over the course of a week or two?

I think you can safely add some new rock. Do you have some cycled rock? If not where is the rock coming from? If you have to cycle new rock will it be in the new tank?

You might want to go ahead and start using the mini to acclimate the corals. You can cycle with no light.

The sand totally your call. Moving things over slow seems like the best plan but not many can do it.